Taft Union High School shooting suspect believed to be a student
January 10, 2013 | 10:51 am 556Two students were taken to hospitals after a shooting Thursday morning at Taft Union High School, a Kern County sheriff’s official said.

Sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said one victim was flown to Bakersfield for treatment. Officials were still trying to determine if the second student had been struck or was suffering from a stress-related ailment, he said, adding that the conditions of both students were unknown.

Pruitt confirmed that the suspected shooter was in custody and was also believed to be a student, and that a shotgun had been recovered from a building on campus where the shooting occurred.

The incident was reported shortly after 9 a.m. in the city of Taft, a small town southwest of Bakersfield. Students were evacuated to a football field, and as of 10:30 a.m., authorities were still searching the building, Pruitt said

The drama started after 09:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when the gunman, also a student, arrived late, armed with a shotgun, at the school in the small town in California's central valley.

Students and staff telephoned police, but before officers could arrive, the suspect had shot at two people in a class in the science block. One shot missed its target.

The teacher, who had been grazed by a pellet, then intervened. He is reported by US media to have warned the suspect that there would be no shooting in his class, at which point the gunman put down his weapon and police officers arrested him.